Scarred but Healing
by RosieCheeks101
Summary: Mental Hospital AU. Self-Harm Warning. Pairings: Percabeth, Tratie, Leico/Valdengelo/GhostFire/PopCorn, Jasper, Frazel, One-Sided Caleo, One-Sided Lukabeth, Charisse, One-Sided former Pernico/Percico, Groviper, Charlena, Former Reyson, Ceyna/Calna (Calypso/Reyna) So chapters will go Grover, Annabeth, Percy, Random
1. Chapter 1

wE'Re ALl CraZY HERe

Here being Olympus Hospital for Mentally Disturbed Adolescents. Of course, just by looking at us you could never tell. I was sure my mum had dropped me off in the wrong place last month when I arrived. My names Grover, and I'm here because of a drug overdose, but really, it's not so bad, some of the 'campers', as the carers call us, would disagree, but usually they're the Extremes.

Let me explain, I have a friend, Annabeth, she's OCD and schizophrenic because she was addicted to Marijuana. Anyway, she sorted everybody into categories; the harmless, the mild, the middle, and the extreme. I'm a harmless apparently, and she's a middle. She sorted everyone in the clinic into these categories with the help of this other OCD kid, Jason. Jason has OCD, violent episodes and Frequently Recurring Amnesia, he's a middle to extreme, has violent outbursts and doesn't remember afterwards.

The extremes are usually people who tend to be either violent, homicidal or suicidal, and we have plenty of all three. For example, in the violent category, you have Clarisse La Rue and Reyna Avila Ramírez-Arellano, Clarisse also has Aspergers and Reyna has PTSD, not that anyone knows what the traumatic experience was. And then homicidal, you have Luke Castellan, who's also a psychopath. And finally, suicidal, the two extremes who are suicidal are Nico di Angelo, who is also, bi-polar, depressed and suffers from insomnia. And my best friend, Percy Jackson, who is also ADHD and dyslexic. Also in the extremes section is Octavian, who is a Sociopath and Sadist.

You'll probably learn more about the other categories from Annabeth. Meanwhile, let's get into the story, I had been at Olympus Hospital for Mentally Disturbed Adolescence (we call it Camp Half-Blood) for a month.

It was visiting day, and I had no family who would be visiting, so I was hanging out with Percy, his step-dad, Paul, and little brother, Tyson.

Looking at Perce playing with the four year old, I could almost forget the scars that covered his wrists and thighs, almost forget about the time I walked into his room to find him with a finger down his throat, the time Annabeth had to drag him out of the games room to sto-No! I needed to stop thinking about these things. Eventually I decided to leave Percy and go find Annabeth, who I knew wouldn't be having visitors today, just the way she liked it. I headed to her room and knocked on the door.


	2. Chapter 2

YoU HAvE to gO ON AnD BE CrazY. CRAzINEsS IS lIkE HeaVeN.

I jumped when I heard a knock at the door. I glanced over at my roommate Silena but she was talking on the phone to her boyfriend 'Charlie', which would be perfectly normal, except Beckendorf died in a fire here at Camp Half-Blood last year. But by now I was used to it, Silena was in denial about Charles' death. It was the reason she was still around, as she was meant to get out at the end of last summer, when Beckendorf died, yet she acted like it hadn't effected her, so eventually Aphrodite asked her about it, and she acted like her carer was the insane one, he's not dead, she had claimed. Silena used to be a harmless, now she's a middle, because sometimes she lashes out at the people who try to tell her Charlie's dead. She's 20, a compulsive liar, and bulimic. Yes, this place may be for 'mentally disturbed adolescents' but not all of us are teens now, the eldest is Calypso, or Callie, she's 21 (she's been here since 16), a perfectionist with social anxiety disorder, and she's a harmless, she's also getting out this summer. Here they let people come whenever, but they don't let you leave until the last day of summer.

Anyway, back to the knock at the door. I was sure it was somebody out to get me, panicked schizophrenic, remember. I mean, yeah, I take the damn medicine and the voices are gone now, but I still panic easily, this was no exception. Relief washed over me when, after five minutes, I opened the door to the familiar smiling face of Grover Underwood.

"Hey, Annie!" he grinned at me as he ruffled my hair and let himself into mine and Silena's room. I scowled at the dumb nickname, Grover often teases me about being a year younger then him and treats me like an annoying younger sibling. In turn, I tease him about his strangely shaped feet, seriously, those things could be hooves!

"Hey Goatlegs!"

"Now now Bethie, is that anyway to treat your elders?" He smirked at me.

"What do you want Grover, I thought you were with Percy?" I questioned, curious. I've known Percy since he got here when we were fourteen, I got here when I was twelve.

I figured Grover would be hanging out with Percy and his step-dad. I knew Percy had invited him to hang out with them and Percy is hard to say no to, especially when he uses his 'baby seal' face, he looks so adorable when he pulls that face, not that he isn't good-looking normally, but don't you dare tell him I said that. Aannyywwaayy, where was I? Right, Grover!

Grover didn't answer me for a while, but he stood so still he almost could have turned into a tree. Meanwhile, I was glaring at Lena's side of the room, which was a major mess, with clothes scattered everywhere. After a while Grover spoke up.

"I couldn't stop thinking about...you-know-what," I knew exactly what Grover meant, he couldn't stop thinking about all the times Percy'd self-harmed. I'm good at ignoring it from years of learning to but Grover's only new.

"Hey, he hasn't done anything in half a month, that's impressive for him you know," I said. And I know it doesn't sound like much but Percy is getting better, much better, when he got here you couldn't leave him alone for more then five minutes without him hurting himself.

"I know, but, I saw him with Ty and, he looked so happy, and I couldn't believe this is the guy who has scars covering his arms, the guy who, when you took me to meet him, had a finger jammed down his throat over a toilet bowl," I cringed at the memories, he had been so good that week, so happy, and then he just, relapsed, and when Grover left he collapsed into my arms and sobbed, neither of us caring about the 'no two campers of the opposite sex are allowed in a room alone' rule, it wasn't like it was the first time we'd broken that one.

"I know, Grover, I know," I smiled sadly and hugged him as he cried, sitting on my bed, completely ignoring my roommate talking to her dead boyfriend.


	3. Chapter 3

tHe THoUGHts wRittEN On thE WaLLs of MaDHOUseS BY thEIr InMAteS MIGht be wOrTH pUBLIcisInG

I sat on a couch in the visiting room, tickling Tyson's stomach, he giggled and kicked but I didn't stop, he squeezed his too large eyes shut, and when I say large, I mean, they're so big they almost look like one.

"Percy, stop, stop," he screeched and I finally let him go, setting him down. He ran over to Paul and jumped onto his lap. I noticed my sleeves had ridden up and quickly tugged them down, not that there were any new scars. Thinking of my scars made me think about why I gave them to myself, which made me think about my mum. She's dead, we were in a car three years ago, spun off a bridge, and she died. Paul brought me here a year later.

"So Percy, how's life, how's Annabeth?" Paul asked me and I'm fairly certain I turned into a tomato. I told Paul I liked Annabeth last visiting day and he hasn't stopped with the teasing yet.

"Life's good, and ah, so is Annabeth," I said slowly.

"Have you asked her out yet?" I threw a magazine at him for that.

"NO!"

"No what?" I heard from the door, and I turned to see Annabeth leaning against the doorframe smirking with Grover by her side. His eyes were red, which I found weird, but I didn't ask. You found kids crying all the time around here.

"Ah, nothing!" I yelped as Tyson hopped off Paul's lap to hug Annabeth and Grover. The kid loved them although Grover was uncomfortable around little kids.

Annabeth chuckled as she picked up my brother and sat by my side, "don't worry seaweed brain, we didn't hear anymore of the conversation."

"Don't call me that!" I shouted, and, just to annoy her, I kicked my feet up on the table sloppily, and smirked as she glared daggers at them.

Annabeth was about to say something when Leo Valdez came running into the room and hid. That kid is a 'mild' according to Annabeth and Jason's crazy system. He's depressed, and a pyromaniac. I looked him over and noticed the ash on his shirt and worked out what had happened but before I could say anything we heard a loud scream from down the hall.

"VALDEZ, I'M GONNA KILL YOU!" Nico di Angelo's extremely pissed off voice rang through the walls. I cringed, if Leo had set something of Nico's on fire he better run. Just then one very annoyed fourteen year old stormed through the door with a scowl on his face and his favourite jacket in tatters. Oh my god Leo could have chosen anything to burn and he chose the Aviator Jacket.

Nico stormed over to Leo and picked the older kid up by the jumper with ease (which was a strange look seeing as Nico is nearly a head shorter then Leo, and thats saying something) and lent in really close, "listen Valdez, if you ever burn my stuff again, I will kill you," while most campers would be terrified Leo just lent in and pecked Nico on the lips before shrugging off his jumper and sprinting away. Nico stood there stunned for a minute before it dawned on him what had just happened, "Leo!" he hollered as he sprinted off in pursuit of the older patient.

"Okay..." I said uncertainly.


	4. Chapter 4

SoME aRE bORn MAD, SomE AchIEvE mAdneSs, anD soME HAVe MadNesS thRUst uPON 'eM

I ran and ran as fast as I could from Nico. He was going to kill me. I didn't regret it, by any means, but it was the closest I'd ever come to admitting I liked the younger kid. It was no secret that I was bi, and most people knew about Nico's being gay, but literally no one would ever think of us together. We were, on the outside, opposites. The problem is no one looked any further then skin deep. Everybody caught on the surface, the cuts on Nico's arms, the burn marks on mine, and forgot that there was more to either of us.

Suddenly, I felt a strong hand wrap around my arm. I yelped before realising the hand was to big to be Nico's, and when I spun around I came face to face with my best friend Jason Grace.

"Yo, Superman, what's up?" I asked as I cautiously looked over his shoulder to make sure Nico wasn't coming.

"What'd you do, Leo? I see it in your eyes, you set something on fire again."

"Geez Sparky, straight to the point, huh? Anyway, I did nothing wrong, totally didn't set di Angelo's Aviator jacket on fire or anything," I said as I spared another glance over the blonde's shoulder, did I mention I was a brilliant actor?

"You did what?! Jeez Leo, this is not how you show him you like him, you can't keep setting his stuff in fire, go up to him p, tell him how you feel, and kiss him!"

"Hey, loud, loud, tone it down!" I said, nobody needed to know about that, "and hey, I kissed him!"

"When?" Jason's chastising was replaced with interest and confusion.

"Like, two seconds ago, he was leaning in and being all 'Rah, I'll kill you, Grah, Death, Wrah' and I randomly kissed him, freaked out, and sprinted off," upon hearing this Jason face-palmed and then glared at me. He was about to reprimand me when I heard a familiar voice echoing down the hall, "Leo!"

"Okay, bye Jase, gotta go!" I said as I sprinted off.

I didn't get far before another hand wrapped around my wrist, this one smaller, and turned to find myself staring into hell-deep dark brown eyes.

"Ah, di Angelo, what a pleasure, now tell me, what brings you down this way?" I asked him in a fake posh British accent and he held up what was once his Aviator jacket and growled, "Ah, that. Now now, my dear boy, you must understand. You left that precious, flammable jacket alone with a depressed pyromaniac who's in here for accidentally killing his mother, that was a recipe for disaster," Nico didn't so much as flinch at that last bit, the whole camp knew about the incident that landed me here when I was eight, and most pitied me for it, but not Nico, he didn't care, he's been through even more than me and I guess that's why I like him, because he doesn't pity me.

"I didn't 'leave it' with you, it was sitting on my bed in our room and you set it on fire with the matches Pipes steals for you from the petrol station!" Nico yelled. Wow, kid knows me better then I thought. Honestly, we were pretty good friends believe it or not, most people choose not, it's just that we get on each other's nerves, a lot.

"Same diff-" I tried to say but he apparently wasn't done.

"And then you go running off and hide in the visiting room, and then, you KISSED me you stupid adorable bastard!"

I raised an eyebrow and smirked, "Adorable?" I asked and Nico turned into a tomato. The kid stammered as he realised just what he had said. I felt sorry for him so I leaned down and pecked him on the lips again, "I think you're pretty damn adorable too," and walked off to our room.


	5. Chapter 5

**(A/N) So, this is how you will know who's PoV it is, the little but at the top:**

**wE'Re ALl CraZY HERe - Grover**

**YoU HAvE to gO ON AnD BE CrazY. CRAzINEsS IS lIkE HeaVeN. - Annabeth**

**tHe THoUGHts wRittEN On thE WAlLs of MaDHOUseS BY thEIr InMAteS MIGht be wOrTH pUBLIcisInG - Percy**

**SoME aRE bORn MAD, SomE AchIEvE mAdneSs, anD soME HAVe MadNesS thRUst uPON 'Em - Random (A/N)**

wE'Re ALl CraZY HERe

A couple of days after the Leo/Nico incident the roommates were acting very awkwardly together. Me and Percy had tried to talk to them about it but neither would open up, and it was obvious that the only times they were anywhere near each other were therapy and night time. Even during therapy they wouldn't look one another in the eye and sat as far away as possible. One day I got sick of it and cornered Nico after lunch.

"Listen Di Angelo, you are my friend, but so is Leo, and I don't know what happened between you, because all this stuff was not caused by the one kiss I witnessed, you and I both know that, so just tell me, what happened?" I looked into his eyes, and realised he was crying, I immediately felt horrible and wrapped my arms around him, and he grossly sobbed into my orange 'camp' shirt, "Oh my god Nico, I'm sorry."

After a while his breathing steady enough to talk, "Ho incasinato Grover, ho incasinato veramente male," the younger boy said in English, his native tongue, Nico moved here when his mother and sister died in an explosion in a hotel, to live with his dead-beat dad, he was 10 at the time, ended up here less then a year later.

"Hey Nico, I don't speak Italian you know."

"I-I messed up Grover, I messed up real bad," he said and stepped away from me quickly, wiping his puffy red eyes, "He-he kissed me, after I chased after him, and then he left, and, when is got back to our room he was freaking out, and he, he wanted to talk about it, but, I told him to pretend it never happened, that it was a mistake, and I just watched his heart break right in front if me but he put on a smile like he always does and agreed. But I don't want to just forget about it, and I don't want it to have just been a mistake, because I like him, more then I did Percy!" I was surprised about that last part, because if he meant it, which I was sure he did, then he was practically head-over-bloody-heels in love with Leo.

"Well then go talk to him! He's just over there," I said as I gestured to the small Latino who had just walked out of the cafeteria with Jason, his arm around his girlfriend Piper. Nico nodded and walked over to Leo, I couldn't hear what he was saying but Leo obviously told the other two to go ahead as he and Nico walked to the side of the hallway so they wouldn't be trampled, Nico said some things to Leo and next thing I knew Leo's arms were around Nico's neck (which was an odd look as he was almost a head taller) and was kissing the younger boy senseless. My only thought was, hehe, I did that, as I turned the corner into an empty corridor, and found Calypso Atlas and Reyna Avila Ramírez-Arellano in a pretty compromising position. And a lack of shirts.


	6. Chapter 6

YoU HAvE to gO ON AnD BE CrazY. CRAzINEsS IS lIkE HeaVeN

My day had been pretty normal until Grover Underwood showed up screaming things like 'my eyes, my eyes' followed by Callie and Reyna, who's shirts were both awfully wrinkly, yelling something about how 'they could explain'. After five minutes of me not understanding what was happening, I got fed up.

"Okay, what the hell is going on here?"

"These two were, they were, doing stuff in empty corridors, stuff nobody wants to see!" was Grover's blushing and stammering reply. I just stared at him indifferently.

"Oh was that the big reveal? Geez Grover, I worked that one out months ago," I said as I swung my legs up onto my bed and picked up my book again, Divergent.

"You what?" the girls asked in unison, looked at each other, blushed and looked back at me.

I sighed and put my book down, "Oh please, you two always disappeared at the same times, nobody knowing where you went. You share a room so it wouldn't be to difficult. You've been particularly chummy the last six months, I assume that's when the relationship started. Reyna has stopped staring at Jason every waking moment, same for Calypso with Leo and Percy. And, last but far from least, you disappear and come back in the other's clothes on a regular basis," at this analysis of there relationship both girls blushed even harder.

"And, you don't think it's, I dunno, weird?" Callie asked uncertainly.

"'Course not after watching Leo and Nico dance around there feelings for the past few days it's a relief to have some people who admit the mutual attraction," at this they all stared at me like I was insane but I don't know why. After a minute of silence I decided to go back to my book, I heard the door open and close and Callie and Reyna left, but Grover stayed.

"Ookkaayy, well anyway, if it makes you feel better there won't be anymore watching the idiots dance around each other, I took care of that, they're together now," Grover spoke up after awhile.

"Uh huh."

"You know that thing that you said about dancing around each other?"

"Uh huh."

"Do you know why we all stared at you?"

"Nuh uh."

"Okay, well, see ya," he said and I heard the door shut, I breathed a sigh of relief, I really just wanted to read, though I did wonder for a little while what Grover had meant, about them all staring at me. I mean, it wasn't like I was dancing around my feelings for anyone. Was I?


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter seven

tHe THoUGHts wRittEN On thE WAlLs of MaDHOUseS BY thEIr InMAteS MIGht be wOrTH pUBLIcisInG

To be honest, I was slightly confused when, at dinner, I walked to our table to find Nico and Leo aggressively making out, I mean, just this morning, they had been avoiding each other with a passion. I stood there for a few minutes, not knowing quite what to do until Grover showed up.

"I did that you know," he said proudly, not that I understood what he meant, before clearing his throat loud enough for the two boys to hear and they broke apart. When they saw us they both blushed deeply, Leo looking like he was about to spontaneously combust and Nico looked like he wished he could sink into the shadows. I casually slid into my usual seat (with two OCD kids in your friend group you end up with usual seats), which was directly across from the blushing boys, and Grover slid into his own seat next to me.

"So, A) when did this happen? And B) Grover what did you mean by, and I quote, 'I did that you know'?" I asked and Grover answered first.

"What I meant was, today at lunch me and Nico had a little talk, and I told him to tell Leo how he felt, this was right before I walked in on Reyna and Callie about to, you know..." he trailed off, "by the way those two will probably be coming out tonight some time."

"You mean, Callie with social anxiety disorder, and Reyna with PTSD, are like, together, like a couple?"

"Yes," he answered nonchalantly. It was then that I noticed Nico and Leo hadn't participated in this conversation and when I looked up at them they were making out again. So I threw my 'wonder bread' at them (wonder bread is really just bread that's got a bunch of stuff in it to calm us down, but everyone knows well enough not to actually eat it).

"Hey, we have a rule here you know, no PDA at the table! If Jason and Piper have to follow it so do you!" the two boys pulled away grumbling as Annabeth pulled out the chair next to me and sat where she always sat.

"Why is there wonder bread on the floor? Never mind I don't wanna know, oh, by the way congratulations guys," she flashed a smile at Nico and Leo before picking up a spoonful of peas from her perfectly ordered meal. In one corner was her greens, in another, meat, another sat a piece of wonder bread, and finally, her cutlery, neatly laid out in order of size, no you could never tell this girl was OCD.

"Wait how did you know?!" I asked surprised at her obvious knowledge of the relationship.

"Long story, so anyway Seaweed Brain, where are the others?"

"Well Frank and Clarisse are having a counselling session with Ares," I shuddered, Ares Mars was the councillor for the two campers, and he's really scary and mean, not to mention dumb, I doubt he can read, not that I can judge being dyslexic and all but still...sorry, off topic, but that's ADHD for you, anyway, "Hazel is locked in her room, Pluto's trying unsuccessfully to get her to come out, hey Neeks you should probably go, she is your sister after all," and with that Nico hopped up to go help Pluto Hades try to get the young selective mute out of her room, "Jason and Piper are in my room and I'd rather not know what they're doing, Callie has one on one counselling with Vulcan, Reyna with Bellona, the Stoll brothers were planning some prank in their room, and Katie was with them, though she didn't seem to happy, Rachel is painting, Silena's talking to her dead boyfriend, Juniper is freaking out about there being to many people, hey G-man you should go get her," I babbled as Grover got up to help his girlfriend, "Luke and Octavian aren't allowed out of their room tonight, something about Luke attempting to kill someone and Octavian cheering him on, and Thalia is keeping Luke company," I finished, it was normal for me to know where everyone was, I wasn't noticeable, more a wallflower, but I do notice other people, I basically know everything about everyone, Annabeth likes to joke that that's why my hair is always so messy, because it's full of secrets, I think that's a reference to something but I don't know what.

"Okay," she said as she picked up a leg of chicken, "so Leo, how has your day been?" she asked turning her attention to the younger kid who had been here so much longer then the rest.

"Fantastic, absolutely fantastic! Well it wasn't so great at first 'cause Jason relapsed and tried to attack me with a coin. So then I decided to take out my anger on a table, how was I supposed to know Coach Hedge would be upset by me burning Buford the Table? Also, who names a table, and Buford at that?!" I just nodded, coach was a pretty weird guy, what with his constantly carrying around his baseball bat 'Mellie', so named after his deceased girlfriend who died in a plane crash, "And then Khione tried to lock me in the walk-in freezer, dude that girl is crazy. And then at lunch Jason still didn't remember everything so that was kinda awkward, but then after lunch Nico pulled me aside to talk and well...we kissed, and now we're together."

Just as Leo concluded his recount of his day Frank and Clarisse walked in, well, Frank walked, Clarisse stomped. After the step-siblings sat down in their usual seats next to each other Piper and Jason came in, both looking quite rumpled, and I noticed Annabeth rumple her nose at the tardiness. Piper sat with Annabeth on one side and Jason on the other, next to Jason was Leo, with two chairs between him and Frank, for Nico and Hazel respectively. Next to Frank was Clarisse, and next to her was an empty seat for Reyna. After a few minutes of chatter Reyna and Callie came in and sat next to each other. After them was Nico and a defeated Hazel. Then in came Rachel, who sat next to Callie. Next to Rachel was an empty seat for Octavian, and next to that seat sat Connor Stoll, who was laughing with his elder brother Travis, while Travis's girlfriend Katie sat next to him looking unimpressed. Two empty seats for Silena, who rarely ate, and Luke, a seat for Thalia, and finally, there was Juniper, who had been dragged into the room by Grover.

Yep, average day at Camp Half-Blood.


	8. Chapter 8

**_SoME aRE bORn MAD, SomE AchIEvE mAdneSs, anD soME HAVe MadNesS thRUst uPON 'Em_**

After dinner Katie and I went for a walk around the gardens, it was a tradition of ours, because she absolutely loved nature. I was really proud of Katie, she had MPD (Multiple Personality Disorder) but hasn't had an 'episode', as we call it, in a couple of months. If she keeps it up she'll be out by the end of summer. Of course, that will mean I'll still be stuck here, but we'll make it work. I'm in here because me and my brother, Connor, are kleptomaniac runaways, and I, well, I was hooked on coke for a while.

"Travis, what, what's she like? The other one?" I heard the small brunette ask from beside me in a quiet voice.

"She...she's so different to you. She can be violent, yet, she's broken, I see it in her eyes, and, she feels fat, so she purges. But, she still has a fierce protectiveness over nature."

"That won't change," she giggled from beside me.

I smiled and looked down at her. She was giggling and mucking about like normal, when something inside of her changed, I saw it in her leafy green eyes. She stepped away from me, straightened her back, ran her fingers through her dark brown, almost black, hair and started acting differently, I sighed, I'd seen this before.

"Hello Miranda," I smiled at her, receiving a glare in return, 'Miranda' is much harsher then Katie and doesn't like me much.

"Oh, it's you," she spat venomously at me, although in her eyes I saw how broken she was, she was always like that. Miranda was, to put it simply, a manifestation of Katie's bad experiences when she was a little kid. Once at the park when she was eight she found a trail of Chocolate Rabbits on Easter, so she decided to follow them. After a while of following the trail she found herself deep in the bush. Some men had set up the trail and they kidnapped her, she was missing for over a year, it was all over the news, I remember seeing it myself in glimpses before my drug addict mother would flip the channel saying that the show was getting boring. While Katie was missing, well, the men did awful things to her. And Miranda stems from that part of Katie's life. After the police found her, some boys at her school teased her about being 'fat', which she isn't but she didn't know that, and that's why Miranda has an eating disorder.

"Geez, aren't you a breath of sunshine today?" I shot back, I knew I should be polite but I couldn't, I didn't like Miranda, at all. This earned me another glare.

"It's 'ray' not breath idiot," she snarled at me. I had to remember that this girl was not Katie, she was a different personality, a new girl, nothing like the girl I loved. But she looked like her and it was hard to remember sometimes.

"Okay Miranda, 'm sorry, my mistake."

"You should be dummy," she snapped at me, another thing about Miranda, she's super insecure and seems to feel the need to be right, like, all the time.

Miranda sat down on the garden bench and I sat beside her. She shot a death glare at me but I thought nothing of it. I sat beside her for an hour listening to her insult me or mutter insults to herself until her body language slackened so she was slouching, I smiled, Miranda would never slouch, it was a sign of weakness, and no one could know just how weak she was on the inside. Katie was back.

"I-it happened again, didn't it?" She said in the same timid voice as earlier that night. Nothing like Miranda's angry snarl.

I smiled down at her, "Yeah, yeah it did. But hey babe, you got a new record."

"On what?"

"How many times you can insult me in the hour Miranda usually appears for."

She slapped me for that.


End file.
